Idle thoughts on cinema in 500 words (give or take a few). by Ian Scott Todd

8.25.2013

The Films of 2013: The Spectacular Now

There’s a lot that’s safe
and familiar about James Ponsoldt’s new coming-of-age drama The Spectacular
Now, in which Miles Teller and
Shailene Woodley play a pair of high school sweethearts trying to plan (or, in
Teller’s case, avoid planning) for life after graduation.I was particularly let down by the way
in which this otherwise thoughtful and intelligent film blasts through most of
the plot developments on which its last act hinges; it feels like it runs out
of the patience needed to give those emotional beats the requisite weight.But it’s made worthwhile by the
astounding naturalistic performances of Teller and Woodley, who took home a
joint acting award at Sundance earlier this year for their work.Teller’s Sutter Keeley is a good-natured
joker whose outward affability masks woundedness and a fear of abandonment; he’s
good at bolstering the self-esteem of his friends—he even gives friendly advice
to the classmate who has begun dating his ex-girlfriend—but he’s wracked with
self-doubt, drinks constantly, and fears he’ll turn out like the alcoholic
father who abandoned the family.Woodley’s Aimee Finickey meets him for the first time while on her
morning paper route after he passes out drunk on a stranger’s lawn.Aimee’s inner conflicts get less screen
time than Sutter’s, but they’re no less complicated; her friendliness and
optimism often shade troublingly into passivity, and we wince at the ease with
which she forgives away her mistreatment at the hands of those around her.She’s a particularly well-drawn and
heartbreaking character, the kind of young person whose strengths—openness,
generosity, responsibility—often set her up to be taken advantage of, an irony
that the film acknowledges only glancingly.

It’s a rare thing to see
teenagers in movies played with such rawness and complexity of emotion.The weaknesses of the film’s plot don’t
impinge upon Teller and Woodley’s intimate dialogue scenes together, many of
which are done in impressive long takes and which are embroidered
with beautiful improvisatory touches.Teller is very good here; I first noticed him several years ago when he
gave a scene-stealing performance in Rabbit Hole, playing the neighbor boy responsible for
accidentally hitting and killing Nicole Kidman’s child with his car.He was strikingly understated in his
scenes with Kidman, and if his performance here is somewhat less impressive it
may be because The Spectacular Now calls
for bigger emotion.Woodley, on
the other hand, is even better here than she was in Alexander Payne’s The Descendents, for which she
received much attention back in 2011.While Teller works out Sutter Keeley’s demons from center stage, Woodley’s
Aimee lurks more quietly on the sidelines.Her character is less developed but vastly more interesting,
and played with arguably more subtlety.Don’t be fooled by her self-effacing smile or her cheery, lilting voice:
there’s real depth there.